EN 301 549 Accessibility requirements for ICT products and services - 14. Conformance

Conformance to the present document is achieved by meeting all the applicable requirements, these are clauses containing the word "shall". Those clauses containing the word "should" are recommendations and are not required for conformance.

All clauses except those in clause 12 are self-scoping. This means they are introduced with the phrase 'Where ICT <pre condition>'. A requirement is met when the pre-condition is true and the corresponding test (in Annex C) is passed. When one of the pre-conditions is false the requirement is not applicable. Consequently, the result of the tests in Annex C can be: not applicable, pass, fail, or (in exceptional circumstances) not testable.

ICT is often comprised of an assembly of two or more items of ICT. In some cases, two or more interoperable items of ICT may together meet more requirements of the standard when one item complements the functionality of the other and the sum together meets more of the accessibility requirements. However, combining two items of ICT, both of which fail to meet any particular requirement, will not lead to a combined ICT system that meets that requirement.

The present document does not prioritize requirements.

NOTE 1:  Conformance with the accessibility requirements could be affected by subsequent implementation or maintenance.

NOTE 2:  Sampling is frequently required on complex ICT when there are too many instances of the object to be tested. The present document cannot recommend specific ICT evaluation sampling techniques as these are context specific.

The inherent nature of certain situations makes it impossible to make reliable and definitive statements that accessibility requirements have been met. In those situations therefore, the requirements in the present document are not applicable:

• when the product is in a failure, repair or maintenance state where the ordinary set of input or output functions are not available;
• during those parts of start-up, shutdown, and other state transitions that can be completed without user interaction.

NOTE 3:  Even in the above situations, it is best practice to apply requirements in the present document wherever it is feasible and safe to do so.